360-degree virtual reality (VR) technology denotes technology that unlike general VR, processes a plurality of images obtained by photographing a 360-degree region according to various image processing techniques to provide a sense of realism and immersiveness to a user by using an image display device such as a head-mounted display (HMD).
The plurality of images obtained by photographing the 360-degree region may be obtained by using one parabolic lens, a plurality of fish eye lenses, or a camera group equipped with a plurality of general lenses.
The plurality of images obtained by using the camera group are converted into one equirectangular image through a stitching process. Here, the stitching process denotes a work of stitching the plurality of images.
The equirectangular image enables a user to watch a 360-degree VR image through an image display device such as an HMD capable of reproducing a panorama image.
The 360-degree VR technology may be applied monitoring of situations of industrial sites, maintenance, repair, and product and component prototyping, in addition to the fields of game and education.
The 360-degree VR technology developed to date is restrictively applied to video-on demand (VoD) broadcasting or real-time broadcasting, but is not used as a solution for analyzing various situations occurring in industrial sites in real time.